Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Landmark in the City - Tour of AT&T Park

AT&T Park Tour - Pano ballpark bw by roland luistro, on FlickrLast week, the company I currently work for held a summer celebration at AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants.

The highlight of the day for me was the quick tour of the park. We were assigned a group tour guide and showed us around the park with out the ball game crowd. Thank you AT&T Park and my employer.


The day started out cloudy but muggy. A lot of my co workers were shuttled in but I took the BART and then Muni since I live in the city. There was already a long line going into the ballpark at 10:30am.

AT&T Park Tour - Statue 
By 11:30am, the sky has cleared out and sunshine was upon us. A former Giants 1st baseman, JT Snow, greeted us and gave us a quick story that happened in one of the games of the 2002 World Series between the Giants and the Angels. I remember the series went to Game 7. JT Snow seems like a nice guy.
  AT&T Park Tour - JT Snow 

After a ballpark themed lunch, I went to the clubs section for a ball park tour.  I signed up for a 1:15 tour. I saw a bunch of people coming back from their tours and judging from their looks, they've enjoyed the tour immensely.

Our tour guide took us first to the field. While I've been to a couple of games where we were seated behind the Giants dugout, I never walked on the field. There was a crunching sound when I walked on the clay.
  AT&T Park Tour - Pano diamond 

Aside from being told not to step on the grass, I was not sure if our tour guide was supposed to be telling us anything about the field like how often they water the grass, how many people are needed to maintain the field, where the clay came from, etc. 

I didn't mind not getting any information from our tour guide because I was admiring the ball park from the field. I noticed how the ball park looks new, clean and quiet without the usual crown during game day. 
  AT&T Park Tour - Visitors Dugout AT&T Park Tour - Empty Seats 
  AT&T Park Tour - Empty Seat 

Our next tour stop was the Visitors Clubhouse. 
I was surprised how clean it looked and smelled. 
Good job, Giants!
  AT&T Park Tour - Visitors Clubhouse 
  AT&T Park Tour - Visitors Clubhouse lockers AT&T Park Tour - Visiting Team Lockers

Next was the Giants Club. The walls are decorated with old pictures from the Giants' days as New York Giants.
AT&T Park Tour - Wall Art AT&T Park Tour - Billiard room 
  AT&T Park Tour - Wall GC 

If you haven't been to a game in one of the club suites, here is a view.
  AT&T Park Tour - Clubhouse View 

Here's a view of Rincon Hill from the ball park.
  AT&T Park Tour - View outside 

Did you know that there is a bowling alley inside the Giants Clubhouse?
  AT&T Park Tour - Bowling Room 

There were also interesting displays on the corridors.
  AT&T Park Tour - Signed balls AT&T Park Tour - Pins 
  AT&T Park Tour - Peanuts AT&T Park Tour - 2015 figures

This one, a signed ball that was used during Tim Lincecum's no hitter ball game. I believe he has two no hitters.
AT&T Park Tour - No hitter ball 

Here's a pano of of the ball park.
  AT&T Park Tour - Pano ballpark 

I checked the SF Giants' website and found out that there are ballpark tours for a fee. I wonder how that tour differs from the free tour we got last week? Maybe, I'll go reserve a tour one of these days.
  AT&T Park Tour - Floor outside

Let's Go Giants!

~rl

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